I can edit theme, that is not a problem. My sugestions were toward that I guess it is interesting for general usage for everyone.
I am looking to save some space on top of theme. Adding another header would be just wasting space. I am actualy thinking to move maim nenu bar on top of top bar aligned right. It seems it would look nice and quite of space would be saved for showing forum contents.
By the way I found out another bug. When I turned of using buttons. Main menu showed up as text but link to collapse loged user info stayed as image. whole meny is also aligned to left instead of center. Does not look nice.
I guess button generator would work, if you set encoding to utf-8. Right now, there is no encoding set at all. Also, it is missing option to generate main menu butons.
I guessed if template can turn of news items on page according to forum settings, it is possible to do it in top bar too.
I guewss problematic bar spacer is one you are talking about, but it does not show within menu bar but as separate right of it. I tried on another computer, using the same IE and there menu looks right. Who knows, maybe mu IE went wierd a bit.
I guess, edit box height should be actualy option in forum settings. I will leave it as is to see if I can get used to it.

Try just a bit different gray or maybe light blue gray or orange gray for quotes. It actualy does not have to stand out from plain text too much.
Forum title linked to index page is actually requirement by usability standards. I was a bit surprised to find out that no SMF theme has that option, but leaves user to search for home button below.
Link does show underline when howered. That is okay, but again, usability standards require that link is visibly distingushed from plain text all the time. I think that even standard link colours would sit very well on your theme.
About create new topic. I agree, there are various opinions. However, I think this is the first forum I see that does not have post new topic everywhere. It is quite common that when one reads some post, gets an idea to start new topic.
It is actualy part of the most forums policy that users should keep different topics separated and do not post offtopic. Hiding post new topic button actualy encourages user to post as reply instead of new topic, since it is hardly that he will wait to read whole topic, close it and then start new topic. It is expected that user would like to post what is on his mind at one, as new topic. As you guess, am again talking from the usabilty point of view

As I said, my goal is to suggest you ideas. I will wait to see what you will accept and implement as default in your
excellent theme, and then I will customize it to suit my forum needs.
Thank you for your time and will to help.
Pedja